Fugitive AL Leaders Behind Garment Workers’ Unrest; Fascists Funding Anarchy

After Ms. Sheikh Hasina announced she would return home in December, some leaders and business partners of the banned Awami League have targeted the garment industry, known as the backbone of the economy. Their aim is to make the country unstable. Under cover of the garment workers’ movement for higher wages, they provoke workers, attack law enforcers, sabotage key sites and smash vehicles.

More than two hundred fugitive former ministers, MPs and Jubo League and Chhatra League leaders take part in this chaos in the name of winning demands on the road. These people behind the scenes also try to spread fear by setting fire to key sites in the capital, such as the Metrorail and areas listed under KPI. They also try to harm the image of Bangladesh abroad. A report of an intelligence agency has advised more intelligence watch, tighter security and tough action against those involved.

The movement has run for a fifth day in a row in Mirpur in the capital, Ashulia in Savar and the Gazipur industrial zone, and it has turned into extreme violence. Some people allege that loyalists of local BNP MPs have also joined the violence. The day before yesterday, Home Minister Mr. Salahuddin Ahmed said some garment owners and former ministers and MPs are behind the workers’ chaos.

Political analysts say the Home Minister has intelligence on who commits sabotage in the name of the workers’ movement. They say it is a mystery why these people are not being arrested. Intelligence sources say people receive money in their mobile banking accounts once they follow the orders. They go to the spot of the movement, take group photos of their whole team showing protest and vandalism, and send them in.

A team of seven gets Tk 3,500 just for joining the workers’ movement. More money follows when they send videos of vandalism and arson. Vandalism earns Tk 3,000, and arson earns Tk 5,000 to Tk 10,000. Three mobile phones sent a video of the burning of a police vehicle under the Mirpur 11 metro station to the phone of Mr. Alif, nephew of former MP Mr. Elias Hossain Molla.

But the police arrested them before the money arrived. One of them is a young man named Mehdi. Sources say intelligence officers have found 25 WhatsApp and Telegram groups that spoke of the plan for sabotage a day before the incident. From morning, these groups guided the Awami League and affiliated leaders and activists who took part in the sabotage.

Investigators are putting great stress on technology to find the saboteurs and bring them to justice. They are checking CCTV cameras, drone cameras and videos spread on Facebook from the factory areas where vandalism, arson and clashes took place. The checks show that most of those who led the violent brick throwing at the front of the movement were not workers of the factories. They were outsiders, and many of them were active in Awami League politics.

An officer of the detective police said blurred pictures from the videos are being sharpened with modern face recognition software. They are then matched with a database of pictures of old criminals and local political activists. He said police are finding signs of suspicious contact or money transfers on many phones. Officers are tracking those phones and reviewing the call detail records.

Intelligence officers claim they have found these people in groups such as “Maryland Awami League”, “Sobuj Bangla Chetona Muktijuddho 71”, “Spirit 71”, “Sheikh Hasinar Protyabortoner Protyasha”, “Bangabandhu Adarsha Guerrilla 71”, “Songothon 71”, “Dhaka Jela Guerrilla 71” and “Dhaka Bibhag Guerrilla 71”. Ms. Taslima Akter, President of Bangladesh Garment Sramik Sangahati, said the demand of garment workers for higher pay is fair. She said the process of raising pay has also begun.

She said the vandalism on the roads has no link to garment workers. She said garment workers never smash their own workplaces. She said some people are trying to push the workers’ movement in another direction. The intelligence report adds that the financiers and coordinators of the banned Awami League activists are Mr. Alif Molla, nephew of former MP Mr. Elias Molla, and Mr. Ismail Hossain, General Secretary of Metropolitan North Jubo League.

The report also names Jubo League leader Mr. Tajul Islam Bappi, Mr. Mamun of Metropolitan North Awami League, and Mr. Mahbubul Rahman Jewel, an aide of Pani Jahangir. It names Mr. Jahangir Kabir Nanak, Mr. A F M Bahauddin Nasim, Mr. Nasrul Hamid Bipu and Mr. Nixon Chowdhury. Jubo League Chairman Mr. Sheikh Fazle Shams Parash and General Secretary Mr. Mainul Hossain Khan Nikhil are also on the list.

Others on the list are former Chhatra League President Mr. Liakat Sikder, and the president of the banned Chhatra League, Mr. Saddam Hossain. Its General Secretary Mr. Sheikh Wali Asif Inan and former General Secretary of Metropolitan South Chhatra League Mr. Md. Sabbir Hossain are also named. So is Mr. S M Mannan Kochi, General Secretary of Dhaka Metropolitan North Awami League. The source said Mr. Shuvo, former joint convener of Metropolitan North Chhatra League, and Mr. Kamal Gazi, a member of Rupnagar Awami League in Mirpur, have also come up in the probe.

Police investigators claim that Mr. Ilias Uddin Mollah, a former MP living abroad, Mr. S M Mannan Kochi and Mr. Jahangir Alam, personal assistant to former Prime Minister Ms. Sheikh Hasina, supply the money and the orders. Police say Mr. Alif Mollah and Mr. Mahbubur Rahman Jewel, an aide of Mr. Jahangir Alam, gathered people and coordinated the movement in Dhaka for them.

DB investigators say the plan was to pay different sums for different tasks. The tasks were joining the workers’ movement, marching in processions, setting tyres on fire, smashing cars and setting fires. After people sent photos and videos of these acts, the money was to reach them by mobile banking. Police claim they found all this by questioning 26 leaders and activists of the Awami League and its affiliates, and by checking their phones. Police arrested them earlier this week from a workers’ protest in Mirpur.

DIG of Dhaka Range Mr. Mostafizur Rahman told Inqilab that police will take strict legal action against those who create unrest in the garment sector in the name of the workers’ movement. He said those who still create disorder after the formation of the wage board have a different aim. He said police are gathering information to identify the saboteurs. He said police will spare no one who makes the garment sector unstable, whatever party they belong to.

Promise of Tk 500 to Tk 10,000 for taking part

DB investigators say the plan was to pay Tk 500 to Tk 1,000 for joining a procession, Tk 3,000 for setting a tyre on fire, and Tk 5,000 to Tk 10,000 for setting fire to a vehicle or a building. Officers also found that in some places the pay for smashing a car and setting it on fire was Tk 6,000 to Tk 10,000. Sending photos and videos as proof of the work was one key condition for getting the money.

The DB also claims that a few arrested people received money by mobile banking. Intelligence sources say they found 20 to 25 WhatsApp and other online groups under different names on the phones of the arrested people. People who joined the movement sent their location, photos and videos to these groups. Police claim they also found video footage of arson on the phones of the arrested people.

An officer of the DB Mirpur Division, who asked not to be named, said at least 100 to 150 leaders and activists had been gathered to join the workers’ movement with the aim of sabotage. They include grassroots leaders and activists from districts such as Cox’s Bazar, Noakhali and Gaibandha. The officer said that after 5 August of 2024, many left their home areas and work in different parts of Dhaka as workers and day labourers.

He said they stayed in disguise as workers in Mirpur sections 2, 10, 11 and 12 and nearby areas. On the orders of online groups, they gathered at fixed spots. He also claimed that when police moved in, the groups ordered them to go from one place to another. Mr. Mohidul Islam, DMP Joint Commissioner (Crime and Prevention North), said criminals are with the workers. He said police are trying to bring to justice those who break the law or try to worsen law and order.

12 platoons of BGB, drone watch

To keep law and order normal amid the labour unrest, 12 platoons of Border Guard Bangladesh (BGB) have been deployed in industrial areas including Gazipur and Narayanganj. Watch with drones and body worn cameras has also been tightened. Public Relations Officer Mr. Shariful Islam of the BGB headquarters told the media about this yesterday. He said the BGB members work with the local administration and other law enforcement agencies to ensure public safety and keep factory work smooth.

Many factory owners behind unrest in the name of workers’ movement

Home Minister Mr. Salahuddin Ahmed warned that the government will take legal action against anyone who acts to shut down garment factories. He also said the government will take steps to reopen quickly the factories that have already closed. The Home Minister said this yesterday while talking to journalists at the Secretariat. He said many factory owners are behind the unrest in the name of the workers’ movement.

He said the situation in some places often has no link to the demands of garment workers. He said some circles are inciting people to stop production to serve their mean political aims. He said the government will crush such acts with a heavy hand. The Home Minister alleged that some circles linked to the fallen fascism are trying to create unrest in the garment industry to serve their mean political interests. He warned that the government will crush these bad acts with a heavy hand.

Clashes in Mirpur for the fourth day

In the name of the garment workers’ movement, saboteurs chased and counter chased police, clashed with them and smashed vehicles again and again in Mirpur in the capital. In the clashes, protesters threw a police member to the ground and beat him. Yesterday, on the fourth day, the miscreants were more violent than in the previous three days. Their behaviour was brutal.

Yesterday they did not stop at smashing vehicles. They found a police member alone and tortured him cruelly. This took place in front of a supershop of a private company on the Mirpur 11 Kalshi road. A woman filmed the attack on her mobile phone from the balcony of a house beside the road, and the video has already spread on social media. Several cases have been filed before over attacks on police, and several thousand people are named as accused.

Deputy Commissioner Mr. Akhtar Hossain of the DMP Media and Public Relations Division said police arrested 33 members of a banned organisation who joined this workers’ movement in disguise to commit sabotage. Police arrested 30 of them in 24 hours. Deputy Commissioner Mr. Touhidul Arif of the DMP Public Relations South Division said miscreants had sneaked into the garment workers’ movement.

He said  the workers’ leaders said the workers would pull back from this movement. He said those who still carry on the protest are not workers at all but miscreants, and police will take strict action against them. He said some miscreants tried to ruin everything. He said none of those now on the field seem to be real garment workers, and they are on the field with a special aim. He said they had blocked Mirpur 11 road with barricades, and police brought the situation under strict control.